Whats up SSA!

In the near future I would like to open up some type of small car audio shop. Start off small and build it up, but what I was wondering is..

Is it illegal to resell brand new audio equipment without being authorized as a dealer?

Lets say I buy alot of American Bass subs and resell them for a $30 profit per sub (in example), would it be illegal?

Thanks for any input.

No, not illegal, but it needs to be made clear that you are a wholesaler/unauthorized dealer, and that no warranty will come with their purchase.

Oh okay and would that require me to just send an email notifying the company? A call?

You might get away with getting accounts some of these smaller companies. But any big brand is going to have a rep firm you will have to go thru. They will send an agent out to verify your location.

You might be able to find a few distributors that will sell to you with out visually seeing your location. But they will be breaching their contracts with their brands selling to you in this manner.

Regardless which route you go you are going to need proof of business. I.e. state and county tax and resale liscenses.

ill warn you ... car audio shops are a PAIN IN THE ASS!!!!! i have owned a few... sounds fun at first.. right doing what you love and loving what you do... but after a while.. it all boils down to a few things.

1.. every one wants the loudest stereo, head unit subs amps all put in... and they have a budget of 75 bucks.. but theere cusins babies momma owes him some money so hell have to wait till then.

2. with the internet being in every ones hands at every ones finger tips... its SOOOO HARD to turn a profit... even if your a dealer..

IE . ill change the name..... SUNUP only sells to dealers.. its a dealer based company... but there dealers cant sell sunups items.. because billy can get online and buy them for the same price you (the dealer) can get them for on his sales, pre sales, and yard sales,

and if its not a big company like that.. then its somthing that customers car buy on ebay or amazon for less then your retail will be after a profit... then if you have a brick and mortor store you have SICK over head...

3 when you do somthing you love every day.... you stop loving it.

4. people will try to rob you... in one way or another.... if they arnt trying to seal your products off the self,, they will have you install somthing.. then there friend says " nah nigga bridge that shit that hoe will bang harder" so his friends get there monkyin around with shit.. cranking this and that up... then BOOMMMM smoke....... orlando you fucked up my shit!!!!! i want it fixed... and if you dont do it.. he tells every one you dont know what your doing.. blah blah blah....

5. good luck. im just trying to warn you .. i know your young and i admire your drive, i have been there.... over and over again.i wish you great succsess

oh also.. if you work as an installer or own a shop, you can only run in streetbeat 5 a pro class in usaci

Money is in installing and tuning, i.e. glassing and SQ. Good luck.

ill warn you ... car audio shops are a PAIN IN THE ASS!!!!! i have owned a few... sounds fun at first.. right doing what you love and loving what you do... but after a while.. it all boils down to a few things.

1.. every one wants the loudest stereo, head unit subs amps all put in... and they have a budget of 75 bucks.. but theere cusins babies momma owes him some money so hell have to wait till then.

2. with the internet being in every ones hands at every ones finger tips... its SOOOO HARD to turn a profit... even if your a dealer..

IE . ill change the name..... SUNUP only sells to dealers.. its a dealer based company... but there dealers cant sell sunups items.. because billy can get online and buy them for the same price you (the dealer) can get them for on his sales, pre sales, and yard sales,

and if its not a big company like that.. then its somthing that customers car buy on ebay or amazon for less then your retail will be after a profit... then if you have a brick and mortor store you have SICK over head...

3 when you do somthing you love every day.... you stop loving it.

4. people will try to rob you... in one way or another.... if they arnt trying to seal your products off the self,, they will have you install somthing.. then there friend says " nah nigga bridge that shit that hoe will bang harder" so his friends get there monkyin around with shit.. cranking this and that up... then BOOMMMM smoke....... orlando you fucked up my shit!!!!! i want it fixed... and if you dont do it.. he tells every one you dont know what your doing.. blah blah blah....

5. good luck. im just trying to warn you .. i know your young and i admire your drive, i have been there.... over and over again.i wish you great succsess

I ran a service station business for 8 years. A good experiance but never again.

Lmao you use some good examples Jon. I never thought of it that way...

But your right! The "nah nigga bridge that shit" example has happened to me in the past and is a pain in the ass to deal with. Im now leaning to what Huge said.. Installin or just sticking to box building.

Or what about an audio company? Hmmmmm i wonder...

Do you have the knowledge & discipline it takes to start/run your own business? From the nature of your posts it doesn't seem as if you do.

most companies there is a minimum order, some are like 10k min.

I would agree with Monte, there isn't much money in retail sales in audio anymore unless you happen to hit a niche market. To make money you're going to have to add value, offer something that the customer isn't able to do themselves. Generally that's going to be installing/box building as most customers are going to walk into your shop to get your advice on products and then turn around and buy them on the internet. If you make a name installing then at least you have the option of that internet-purchase being brought to you for installation.

To add another point; You have to offer for sale what people want to purchase. Everybody has this idea they can open a shop and sell what ever products they like best and people will flock to them because they are "the best". In reality 99% of the market has no idea what these products are, and if their buddies have Kicker, RF, Lanzar, Pioneer, etc those are the products the customer is familiar with and the products they will want to buy. They aren't going to walk in looking for a $200 Lanzar Vibe and walk out with a $700 Sundown. If you don't have that $200 Lanzar, they are going to walk out the door empty handed.

I live within 30 minutes of the 2nd largest city in my state, and in that city there are TWO car audio shops left....10 years ago there were 7 or 8. Of those 2 shops, one is mostly home entertainment and as far as car audio goes has 2 headunits and 3 pairs of coaxials on display; the other is half car audio and half tool sales with no active display. Point being neither of them rely on car audio sales for a living. Both carry nothing but low end equipment or the lower end lines of mainstream companies. I don't have a JL dealer within 100 miles.....and they are the poster child of mainstream mass marketed car audio equipment.

I live within 30 minutes of the 2nd largest city in my state, and in that city there are TWO car audio shops left

That's interesting. There is a ton in metro Detroit. I don't even search out for them and I know of 4 within a 15 minutes of my house.

I live within 30 minutes of the 2nd largest city in my state, and in that city there are TWO car audio shops left

That's interesting. There is a ton in metro Detroit. I don't even search out for them and I know of 4 within a 15 minutes of my house.

Detroit is about 3x larger than Ft. Wayne, but the Fort is still about a quarter million in population so it's certainly not small either. I'd probably need to take off my shoes to count the number of audio shops I've seen come and go down there. It's difficult to even try to shop locally for simple install products, usually ends up being a waste of time & I end up having to order them online.

Do you have the knowledge & discipline it takes to start/run your own business? From the nature of your posts it doesn't seem as if you do.

I dont have all the extensive knowledge and dicipline but thats why I asked. Otherwise it would be alot more dificult in the future if I do decide to start a business to start blank..

I live within 30 minutes of the 2nd largest city in my state, and in that city there are TWO car audio shops left

That's interesting. There is a ton in metro Detroit. I don't even search out for them and I know of 4 within a 15 minutes of my house.

Detroit is about 3x larger than Ft. Wayne, but the Fort is still about a quarter million in population so it's certainly not small either. I'd probably need to take off my shoes to count the number of audio shops I've seen come and go down there. It's difficult to even try to shop locally for simple install products, usually ends up being a waste of time & I end up having to order them online.

Are you South of Ft. Wayne? I have two JL dealers within 30 miles here. We also have several shops and pretty much all mainstream manufacturers are supported except for Pioneer. Hell, my neighbor's son owns a shop and he makes bank. Of course he gets the cash only clientele if you know what I mean.

And the big boys ain't gonna allow you just carry a select few products. You are gonna carry everything or nothing.

Recently the dealer I used to work for decided they didn't like Alpine's new headunit so they only wanted their amps and speakers. After 30 something years and over $100,000 of dealer cost per month Alpine canceled their account.

I live within 30 minutes of the 2nd largest city in my state, and in that city there are TWO car audio shops left

That's interesting. There is a ton in metro Detroit. I don't even search out for them and I know of 4 within a 15 minutes of my house.

Detroit is about 3x larger than Ft. Wayne, but the Fort is still about a quarter million in population so it's certainly not small either. I'd probably need to take off my shoes to count the number of audio shops I've seen come and go down there. It's difficult to even try to shop locally for simple install products, usually ends up being a waste of time & I end up having to order them online.

Are you South of Ft. Wayne? I have two JL dealers within 30 miles here. We also have several shops and pretty much all mainstream manufacturers are supported except for Pioneer. Hell, my neighbor's son owns a shop and he makes bank. Of course he gets the cash only clientele if you know what I mean.

No, I'm north. The store in SB is 102 miles away. I guess there is one in Sturgis according to the website but I've driven by it a couple dozen times & would be surprised if they carried any stock....from the outside looks pretty low end to me. Never stopped in there though.

dont really mean to threadjack here , but speaking of jl dealers . . . theres a shop about 40 minutes away from my hometown that carries exclusively jl subs, amps, and speakers and a few clarion or something head units. i was getting prices from them just to mess around and was truly shocked at what he gave me. these were prices for 10's.

w1v2 - 75

w3v3 - 140

w6v2 - either 240 or 250.

those are all around or a little cheaper than online prices. i would have never even thought to look there until someone told me about it. its a tiny little shop thats a cell phone shop when you walk in then have some subs in stock with no speakers hooked up for demo. i wouldnt want to let them install anything but for their pricing, if i wanted jl id have to give them my business

I live within 30 minutes of the 2nd largest city in my state, and in that city there are TWO car audio shops left

That's interesting. There is a ton in metro Detroit. I don't even search out for them and I know of 4 within a 15 minutes of my house.

Detroit is about 3x larger than Ft. Wayne, but the Fort is still about a quarter million in population so it's certainly not small either. I'd probably need to take off my shoes to count the number of audio shops I've seen come and go down there. It's difficult to even try to shop locally for simple install products, usually ends up being a waste of time & I end up having to order them online.

Are you South of Ft. Wayne? I have two JL dealers within 30 miles here. We also have several shops and pretty much all mainstream manufacturers are supported except for Pioneer. Hell, my neighbor's son owns a shop and he makes bank. Of course he gets the cash only clientele if you know what I mean.

No, I'm north. The store in SB is 102 miles away. I guess there is one in Sturgis according to the website but I've driven by it a couple dozen times & would be surprised if they carried any stock....from the outside looks pretty low end to me. Never stopped in there though.

Shit, I used to go to Sturgis every week and never saw an audio store there. Funny.

Right on US-12 by the railroad tracks downtown. Thought about stopping a few times but never got around to it.